Finally finished this chapter! Calculus has been really troublesome, and I've only had an hour or two to put into writing this story every three or four days. I hope you all like! :)

Chapter 20: Ice to Meet You

-Cathy's POV-

I dropped off my Evolve Charm at Kangaskhan Storage before heading for Marowak Dojo. While I went into the maze, I thought about what Meowth said about picking which evolution suited me best.

Ugh! Why can't anyone just give me a good suggestion?!

I kept thinking about which of the two forms left I would like to be. A Bagon started charging me, but I dodged and used Attract, shooting hearts at him. He shook his head and looked at me with his eyes dull and a silly grin on his face. I smiled and batted my eyes, "Bagon, could you be a dear and keep watch to make sure nobody attacks me? I'm kinda in the middle of something right now." (AN: Now you know why Cathy fell behind in training. This is her strategy for fighting alone.)

He nodded dumbly, "Uh-huh, you bet, sweetheart!"

I shot him a wink, "Thanks."

He ran off and started patrolling the other side of the room where the hall was. I went back to thinking about my two options.

Let's see… Flareon seems like it could be a fun one to be, but then again Glaceon is prettier. Why do I keep going back and forth about this? I always lean towards Flareon, but keep going back to Glaceon. What's the deal?

I thought hard about it, trying to remember everything in the past two weeks that had to do with me thinking about evolution. For some reason, I kept going back to that talk with Vlad that I had on the beach. It felt like he was a reason that I was so torn about this.

But I don't know anything about him, except that he's a weirdo that likes to scare others. I talked to him one time for, like, 10 seconds. Why do I keep thinking about him when I think about which evolution?

Since I couldn't get anything out of that memory, I tried to think about stuff before that day. Two days before, I was talking with Penny about… something, and then I went home for the day.

But… something about that doesn't feel right… like there should be more.

I heard something, and I turned as the Bagon from earlier was charging me. I couldn't dodge in time and got hit with his Headbutt. My back hit the wall, and I fell to the ground.

The Bagon growled, "You tricked me! You made me fight my own kind!"

I got up and shook my sore head. "Alright, dear, you want to play rough?"

-Meowth's POV-

We walked toward Aegis Cave, Hogan and Rose evolved into Machoke and Gardevoir. At first, Hogan seemed grumpy about the new evolutions. He and Rose used to be the same height, and now Rose is taller than him. Being huffy during the first half of the walk, he eventually got over it. Also, with the evolution, Rose remembered the moves Wish and Healing Wish. Wish takes time to work, with a chant, and heals one member of the team. Healing Wish works right away, and heals the whole team, but leaves Rose exhausted and vulnerable.

We walked into the cave, and Team Charm, along with Corphish, Bidoof and Loudred, were waiting around the stone marker that Vlad had told us about.

Lopunny called out, "There you are! Well, this is Aegis Cave. Beyond this point is unknown territory. No one has ever been inside."

Rio was suddenly very interested in the wall.

"Just imagine what mysteries await us inside. Isn't it exciting, darlings?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Corphish called out looking at the stone marker. "This thing looks important somehow!"

Bidoof nodded, "Yup yup. It's got these odd-shaped grooves gouged out, by golly."

Medicham crossed her arms, "It's got a trick to it, I'm sure. There has to be! I'll solve that mystery! You watch me now!"

Sheesh, now I'm feelin' kinda bad for havin' Vlad scout the place.

"Oh, yes," Lopunny said. "We've asked everyone else already, but what's your team's name?"

Rio looked back to Team Charm, "We're Team Righteous."

Lopunny smiled, "That's quite a good name. I think we should be on our way. Let's see who can find the big treasure, or treasures, of this place. Of course, we'd be disappointed in ourselves if we weren't first! Tee-hee! But let's wish each other the best of luck! Okay, sweeties, we're off!"

Team Charm left further into the cave, and Loudred said, "YEAH! I'll be the first to find the treasure!" He ran off ahead and Bidoof followed, "Yup yup, we'll have to step it up, by golly!" Corphish called out, "Hey, hey, hey!" He ran after them, but tripped and then followed them deeper.

After everyone was gone, Rio let out a sigh, "Meowth, is it fair that we had Vlad scout the place before anyone got here?"

I shrugged, "Maybe not, but there's no takin' it back. Heck, if Team Charm's as great as everyone says, maybe we needed dat edge."

Rose nodded, "Maybe we'll just hold off on it in the future, if we're exploring with others. It does seem a little unfair to know about a puzzle before anybody else."

Hogan stepped up to the stone marker and brushed some of the dirt off, "Let's see here, 'If you seek passage, close your eyes, then submit your proof.' But what are these, up here?"

I walked over and looked where he was pointing. There were three Unown pictures carved in the stone, just like Vlad said.

I-C-E. Ice?

Rio walked forward too, "Grovyle said that these are letters of an ancient language. But I don't know how to read it…"

Right. An ancient language I studied for many years called the alphabet. Oh well.

I pulled out the rock that Vlad gave us and pointed to the Unown letters, "We just need ta find these three Unown, defeat them, and hope we get a stone, like dis one." I shook my head, "It'll be like findin' a needle in a haystack."

Hogan crossed his arms, "Should we split up, once we're in the dungeon? Might find them faster that way."

Rio shook his head, "No, we should stay together. We only have one bag anyway, and we would just have to wait for the others, if one of us got back here first."

Rose muttered to herself before saying, "So there's no way to make this go smoother; it'll all be up to luck?"

I nodded, "And if there's more ta dis cave, like Vlad tinks, then we'll be in for one helluva endurance test. Good thing da four of us trained in da Final Maze."

We all nodded and went deeper into the cave.

-Levi's POV-

I frowned as I hovered above the water, looking for the outlaw, "Remind me why I agreed to this."

Vlad chuckled "Because it will be fun. Trust me."

"From what I've heard about you from the others, that seems like something I shouldn't do."

"Oh, come now! Just humor me. I haven't had such an opportunity in a long time."

I spotted some movement to my right, "Wait, shh… I saw something over there, it might be the outlaw."

Only silence was my reply, and I knew Vlad was ready to enact his strategy that he roped me into. I flew over and spotted the outlaw trying to make his way to the deep water. Diving down, I hit him in the back of the head with Peck and then flew back as he turned around.

I had to keep his attention on me. I decided to quote a line from one of the epics that I had read, "Halt, you blackguard! (AN: Pronounced "bla-gərd") I'm going to stop you in the name of the law!"

He raised an eyebrow and laughed, "You think you can capture me by yourself? Why, you're not even evolved yet!"

Anger flared up in me, but I kept my cool. My job was to be the distraction, not to pick a fight. "I may not be evolved, but I'm far more powerful than you, scoundrel."

"Then prove it." His gem glowed and a pink and white beam of energy shot at me. I readied Steel Wing and let the Power Gem attack bounce off of my wing.

I guess picking a fight technically counts as a distraction.

I dove down and used Wing Attack. He quickly recovered and readied Ice Beam (He must have stolen a TM). But I sped forward and used Sucker Punch, hoping to fizzle out the attack. Kicking him in the stomach with my foot, he doubled over, but the beam continued to grow. I tried to put some distance between us, but I was still too close.

But then his eyes drooped and he flopped over as he fell asleep.

I heard a chuckle and Vlad slipped out of the water underneath Slowking. "Excellent work, Levi. He never saw me coming, and this was an excellent way to field test my new strategy."

Vlad's new "strategy" was that he hid in my shadow underwater and went over to Slowking's when I used Wing Attack. When pitching the idea, he said that it would give outlaws a false sense of security, thinking that they were only fighting one Pokémon, when, in fact, they were fighting two.

I raised an eyebrow, "And just what did you do in this 'strategy'? I was the only one at risk."

He crossed his arms, "Untrue; if he had spotted me, I would've been at great risk from his psychic attacks. Besides, it was easier to hypnotize him when he was too focused on you to resist my suggestions. Also, if I work out a few more things, I might even be able to use Shadow Punch or other long-range attacks from another teammate's shadow. The key is that I'm not seen, so it confuses them when they start getting assaulted from seemingly nowhere."

He walked over to Slowking, "In any case, we have the outlaw, so let's go turn him in." Our badges glowed and we warped out of the dungeon with the outlaw in tow.

-Rio's POV-

I used Rock Tomb to trap a Golbat and used Force Palm on it. Hogan's Rock Slide crushed two Zubat, leaving their wings jutting out of the pile. Meowth used Scratch on an Unown, while Rose used Shadow Ball on another. The enemies all fell from one hit and we were surrounded by their unconscious forms.

A brief silence stretched, before Hogan said, "Anybody else feel like we over-trained for this?"

Meowth shrugged, "Maybe; but it might save our butts when we're further in da dungeon." He walked over to where the two Unown were and looked around. He picked up a rock and sighed, "Wrong one again." He handed it to me and I stored it in the Treasure Bag.

After we went through the dungeon once, we didn't have any luck with finding the right stones that Meowth described. We did find out that they explode when thrown at another Pokémon, so we kept the "duds", as Meowth called them, for ammunition. When we returned to the room, the same as Vlad, we had a brief encounter with Team Charm. From what they told us, they were putting together the pieces of what they had to do.

Currently on our third run through the dungeon, we had gotten two of the stones that we needed for the marker, but we had yet to find the last one. Meowth always looked at each of them because he was the only one that could read the Unown letters.

At one point, I asked him how he knew about them, since Grovyle said that he needed to study for a long time to understand them. He got a faraway look and said, "I spent a whole year learnin' it ta impress somebody, but it backfired. Dey didn't care. Doesn't matta now; was years ago."

While I was reflecting on this, Meowth's ears perked up and he turned and slapped his paw onto the ground. A shadow claw extended and slashed an Unown. After it fell to the ground, a stone appeared. Meowth walked over and picked it up then said, "Got it! Dis is da last one we needed!" He handed it to me and we made our way to look for the stairs.

After we got out of the dungeon and walked into the first room again, we lined up in front of the stone marker. I took the three stones out, making sure to check for the right symbols, and set them down. We all closed our eyes, but I opened them once I heard a shimmering sound. The marker was glowing and the stones floated up and into it. Once they were in, the marker started blinking rapidly and then flashed white before disappearing.

Right where the marker was, a staircase led down further into Aegis Cave. We all looked at each other and then nodded before going down the newly appeared stairs.

As we went further, we saw a massive statue made entirely out of ice. I heard Meowth mutter a curse as he stopped moving and took a step back. I was about to ask why when, the ice statue started moving as well. We all jumped back a bit and the statue settled back to its starting point.

Hogan put a hand on Meowth's shoulder and said, "I'll check it out, I'm strong against ice." He stepped forward with his shoulders squared and the statue started moving again. Hogan stopped and the statue stopped moving, the two of them standing about six feet from each other.

Hogan crossed his arms and leveled a glare at the statue, "So you're the mysterious guardian of Aegis Cave."

The statue started speaking in a monotone voice, "IF YOU WANT TO GO ON, SHOW THAT YOU HAVE THE POWER." It floated up and blew an Icy Wind from the dot on the center of its face.

Thinking fast, I used Rock Tomb and sprouted two massive boulders in front of Hogan to shield from the attack.

We all scattered and Hogan's muscle patterns glowed pink as he used Bulk-up. Meowth used Slash on the statue's side, but when the attack connected, he hissed and jumped back. His paw had turned slightly blue.

"Don't touch 'im!" Meowth called out, "He'll give ya frostbite!" (AN: Body temperature of -328 degrees Fahrenheit. What do you think would happen if you touched it?)

The statue leaped into the air and looked like it was about to stomp on Meowth, but it was suddenly thrown back and to the ground. Rose had her hand out and was glowing blue.

Hogan put his hands together and formed a Focus Blast attack, thrusting his hands as he threw it. It traveled across the room, but the statue started moving out of the way. I focused and used Rock Tomb to trap one of its legs. It started to pull at the rocks, breaking them apart, but Hogan's attack already hit dead center, causing a huge cloud of ice powder to form.

We regrouped as the cloud cleared, ready to scatter or attack as a group, depending on what emerged

A humming sound started reverberating through the room and the statue lifted its arms as it glowed blue before a massive hunk of the ground levitated and flew forward as the statue brought its arms forward. (AN: Superpower)

The projectile was far too massive for us to dodge, but Hogan ran forward and he brought his arms back, his fists glowing, as he jumped. He swung his arms forward and there was a huge cracking noise with a pulse of force as the projectile was shattered and returned, becoming a Rock Slide.

The attack completely buried the statue and fragments of ice were among the pile of rocks. Suddenly, the fragments started glowing and gathering together in an orb of green light. The orb moved closer to us and split, going into all of us. A voice spoke directly in my mind.

You have my permission.

At the back of the room, a wall disappeared, allowing us to move forward. Hogan held his arms where bruises were forming on his fists. Rose walked up to Hogan and put a hand on his, holding her other hand up and murmuring an incantation using Wish.

Meowth tapped me on the shoulder, "Looks like we're getting more dan we bargained for, Rio."

I turned and raised an eyebrow, "What? But we already defeated the guardian. That statue was the guardian of Aegis cave. Right?"

He shook his head, "Dat wasn't no statue; dat was a Pokémon named Regice. If it's here, den it's other buddies are probably here too. We'll be havin' at least two more fights ahead o' us."

A light shone and Hogan held up his healed hands. He thanked Rose and turned to us. Cracking his knuckles he said, "Well, we won't get anything done standing here. Let's keep moving forward."

We walked into a similar room to the first part of the cave, with a stone marker in the center of the room. As we went forward to go read it, a voice called out from behind us, "That was good work!"

We turned around and Team Charm walked in. Lopunny smiled, "You handled that battle with superb aplomb."

"You're going to make us look bad if we don't pick up the pace," Medicham added.

Gardevoir held a hand in front of her mouth as she giggled, "Tee-hee! This has become unusually exciting for me!"

Lopunny said, "But we'll beat you to solving the next mystery! We're off!"

They left and Meowth said, "'Parently, they've never had some healthy competition."

Hogan nodded, "Yeah, I still spar with Savage, and we're pretty equal. Either one of us can win or lose by just a small bit. No better thrill."

"Still, we should probably focus if they're actually taking us seriously now," Rose added.

I nodded, thinking back to the remark they made at the beginning of the exploration. We moved to the marker and Meowth looked at the inscription.

"Looks like we're in luck." He turned to me, "Rio, didn'tca have one o' dese stones?"

I rifled through the treasure bag and found the one he was pointing to. I nodded and he said, "Good, cuz now we only need ta find three. We're takin' on Regirock next."

Now I have to go back to tending to reality. Blech…